Parents, suspend your college kids’
cellphone until after Super Tuesday. That’s
unless you’re OK with them being electronic foot soldiers for Bernie Sanders.
A new app called the “Bernie Dialer” is arming the smartphone generation with the power to help influence the presidential election. According to the website, the app is “a new dialing tool which helps volunteers connect with far more voters per hour” than a manual dialing system would allow.
This app has the potential to unleash an army of digital warriors for Bernie Sanders. College-aged kids from coast to coast can now be part of the Vermont senator’s crusade.
It’s revolutionizing the typical call center and tapping into an untapped resource. If I were Hillary Clinton, I’d be worried.
Ceci Hall of the Sanders campaign says on a YouTube tutorial that the “Bernie Dialer tool is amazing. It calls the numbers for us. So instead of dialing by hand each number and hoping you talk to three or four people an hour, with the Bernie Dialer you will talk to 15 to 20 people an hour.”
Hall touts the benefits of these calls in the video, promising each call will last less than 3 minutes, no persuasion allowed and it will help identify undecided voters or those looking Bernie’s way.
Political observers credited the Obama re-election campaign for having a stronger technology team in place that effectively used big data to rally supporters and ultimately beat Mitt Romney in 2012.
Having a young supporter base brings access to technologically savvy people who can help turn out votes in big numbers. With older voters, this innovation might not work.
At 74 years old, Bernie Sanders is thinking young. He’s counting on that vote a week from today and especially on Super Tuesday, March 1. Hillary won’t be able to catch up if Bernie wins then — even if she does launch her own app.
Jaclyn Cashman is co-host of the “Morning Meeting” show on Boston Herald Radio. Follow her on Twitter @JaclynCashman.
Copyright © 2024 Jaclyn Cashman.
